Hallelujah Hysteria: What does it mean?

Since my last post, I’ve mentioned that I tend to do these posts on a more yearly schedule. I’m coming to find as of late that I will probably have a consistent schedule of doing these posts month-to-month as a kind of index of everything that has occured in my professional and personal life during those past couple of months.

While this doesn’t satisfy my urge to post more routinely and weekly, I’ve slowly come to the realization that you gotta live a life in order to write about it.

…And boy howdy; I’m living quite a life right now.

For starters, I’ve been uploading more YouTube content on a mostly consistent basis. I got a whole set of different video formats to offer to you all. I’ll still be doing music videos and the occasional one-man-band. But I’ll also will be doing videos much like…

First thing I’d like to mention is that I’ve stumbled across this format of video (the reaction video) way earlier in my YouTube days, but I never entertained the concept of doing reaction videos on their own. I wanted to do reactions for music albums, but I haven’t heard of anyone doing something like that. Then I discovered Tabby, Big Quint, Shawncee, and even Lost in Vegas/Weeabo Reacts. I figured now it’s about time I place my toes into these waters, and try to do my own thing. Please, if there’s an album y’all would like me to react to (whether you think I will love or I will hate the album) please send it my way. You can do so through the contact page on my website, or simply post comments on my YouTube video. You can also tweet or post a message to me on facebook with the hashtag #ReactRequest.

As I mentioned before, I now currently work full time as a customer service call agent for a audio/visual equipment retailer that’s pretty popular for the touring musician. Again, like I mention in this video, I don’t want to mention the name until I’m out of the job just to make sure I don’t say something on either my facebook or social media that causes me to loose that said job. Be that as it may, one of the many “treats,” I’ve had with this job is access to all this amazing music gear. This video is a demonstration of just some of the goodies I’ve acquired at my job so far – and the awesome noise it can create. I will post more videos like this as sort of pedal demos with new items and trinkets I’ll pick up along the way in my musical journey.

On top of doing album reactions I’ll also be doing album reviews. These will be more laid back and most likely I’ll simply be talking about albums that have been out for a while. This is mostly just a place where I can talk about work I truly enjoy and that inspires me. However, offer still stands like with the reaction videos. If there’s an album in particular you would really like to see me go more in-depth on and have less of an immediate reaction to it – send the request either through our website or on social media with the Hashtag #AlbumApplication.

I posted this video before but I wanted to include in in this list because this demonstrates the more longer video format that I will work on: video essays where I explain certain albums and artsy-fartsy things I tend to enjoy. Very inspired by the works of Scott Green (whom, I haven’t seen a recent video from him yet. I hope he’s ok).

——————-

Furthermore, something big is coming around the corner.

Something very, very, very big.

It probably will occur on my birthday. I don’t want to spoil too much, so I’ll just say this: while Hallelujah Hysteria will not be dropping in 2018, it will however be dropping in February of 2019.

AND – our singles will be coming out sometime soon.

Here are the covers for the singles, along with their titles.

So yeah, we’ll be dropping these periodically leading up to the release of Hallelujah Hysteria in February 2019. In a way, I still kept my promise – we’ll be releasing part of the album this year – the rest will be dropped early next year. 😛

There will also be a music video for the first single, “I Could Careless.”

To be kept up in the loop, just follow our social media links below. We’ll keep you posted.

In the meantime, I want to thank the folks at Tinderbox music for aiding us in the release of this album as well as promoting it and it’s singles. They’ve been a tremendous help and if you’re a local group in the Minneapolis area hoping to make it big – it ain’t gonna hurt to submit them your stuff.

All that’s left is to round out the band and get a setlist set-in-stone, because we’ve already found a guitar player.

Everyone, meet our new 2nd guitarist for the group: Chris Miller.

I’ll be playing drums for his projects too, so be on the look-out as I post links to those. But anyways, to wrap this post up – let’s get back to the album.

You might be wondering – why Hallelujah Hysteria? What does it Mean?

Basically, the concept I had in my head began in 2016, when the presidential campaign ramped up to ungodly-like proportions. At the time when I was writing and recording my music, it just felt like the end was nigh. Even today, there is a strong sense of electricity in the air; like it won’t take much for a riot to snap off.

And then I thought, maybe that’s what all humans experience – a finite amount of time where you are constantly reminded how finite it is. Maybe that’s all that life is.

So then I thought – “I would love to create a concept album to represent humanity and our perspective on life to the rest of the universe after we’re long gone. You know, like a time capsule of when Humans ‘ran’ the earth; to present to aliens exploring the wreckage of our civilizations.”

If you were to make an album to represent humanity, what would you call it?

If you’re a fan of Jungian philosophy, you may have very well heard of the concept of “the duality of man.” In the broadest of terms, there is the conscious self, and the unconscious self. The one that recognizes the actions and the one that influences those reactions, and both sides have halves to them as well – the light and the dark; the good and the bad. That is humankind in a nutshell. We are duality initofitself.

We are – as my girlfriend likes to call it – Beautifully Broken.

But I didn’t want too emo of a debut album title. She also coined the term “Hallelujah Hysteria,” to capture what I wanted to represent with this album, humanity.

And with that tiny little tweak she suggested, I had an album title.

I took that name and ran with it. These past couple of years can easily be summed up with this simple alliteration. Hallelujah: we’ve created the internet where information can be shared instantly, and people across continents can connect – rendering borders meaningless. Hysteria: the almost daily mass shootings, the internet trolling, the fact that trolling aided in our presidential election.

If there was ever a title to represent Humanity, especially in these current times, Hallelujah Hysteria would be that title.

So when the world is long gone, when the ashes of our discontent rain on the cities we once built and maintained for a period of time; when the Extra Terrestrials run their 18 fingered hands through the wreckage of the world we made – I hope they somehow find a still-functioning copy of this album.

I hope they can somehow hear the music, listen to it.

And then it hits them as they look around the wreckage and listen to these tunes: humans once made these cities, humans made the music too, and the music being blasted is an audio representation of how we all felt on the inside – from our inception to our deception and demise.